More on the Royals

Zip Dobyns

We have looked at Prince Charles
and Queen Elizabeth within the past year or so. Let’s add another member of
the royal family who is becoming increasingly famous: Princess Diana. 1992 was
the “horrible year” (named in Latin) according to the Queen. It had some very
difficult periods for Princess Diana also, but at the same time she became even
more of a star. 1992 brought a sympathetic book about her anguish over what
she experienced as rejection by her husband who preferred a long-time friend
who happened to be married to someone else. The book also exposed Diana’s
bulimia and suicide attempts. A tape was made public on which she was heard
exchanging expressions of love with a male friend who ditched her when the
publicity got too hot for him. The year also brought the death of Diana’s
father and her formal separation from Prince Charles, including considerable
freedom provided she did not ask for a divorce. And at the same time polls
proclaimed her the most popular member of the royal family among the public.
It was a roller-coaster year.

Diana’s chart shows both great
strength and great vulnerability. On the side of strength, she has Sagittarius
rising with its ruler Jupiter in Aquarius in the second house and Saturn is on
the East Point in its own sign in the first house. The combination shows a
father figure as a personal role model, whether positive or negative.
According to her biography, she loved her father but never felt she received
enough love from him. Her mother left her father for another man and her
father married another woman who did not get along well with Diana and her
siblings. Whether or not there is a constructive relationship with the
authority figure, the first house Saturn is typically an indication of some
self-doubt in the early life which helps to fuel the ambition to move into a
position where one can control one’s own life. In contrast to the Saturn, the
Sagittarius and Jupiter usually indicate self-confidence, especially since the
latter is closely conjunct the Antivertex. The vulnerability is shown by Mars
in the eighth house and the Sun in the seventh house; a tendency to feel that
other people have the power. An emphasis on letters seven and eight can lead
to submission to others, trying to please them; to power struggles; or to
retreat from the threat of closeness.

Diana’s mother was bright and
independent, as is suggested by the Moon in Aquarius, but Diana did not get the
emotional love and support she wanted. The Moon’s conjunction with the south
lunar node shows that Diana had a lesson connected to her mother or to her
capacity to be a mother. With her Cancer in the seventh house, Diana was
looking for a husband who would give her the tenderness she did not get from
her mother. But she got a man who had been trained in the British school of
the stiff upper lip, who had not been given any tenderness himself in his early
years, and who had not learned to give it to others. Diana reacted with tears
and psychosomatic illness which further disgusted and alienated Charles. Diana
lavished on her two sons the physical cuddling she so wanted for herself. They
became the one bright spot in her life.

Diana also took on one of the
socially dictated roles for members of the royal family; she visited hospitals,
schools, and other public institutions. She made the required little
dedications and gave the proper little speeches. Though her education had been
limited, she showed both a sensitivity to the feelings and needs of other
people that guided her to usually say and do the “right” thing, and she
demonstrated her genuine warmth for others. With a royal family who had been
trained to maintain dignity, reserve and distance, Diana’s ability to put her
arms around people, to cry with them, to sit on a hospital bed and just hold
the hand of an ill person, brought her into the heart of the ordinary people.
They felt her Cancer capacity for nurturing and they responded with love.

Diana’s strength finally showed
itself in 1992 when she stood up to the disapproval of the whole royal family
and most of their loyal staff. And she won pretty much everything she wanted;
an income, a home, a chance to be with her children though they will
increasingly be away at boarding schools and sometimes with their father, and
the freedom to be herself.

When Diana and Charles agreed to
live separately in early June 1992, Diana’s P Moon was trioctile her natal
Mars—a fitting aspect for her to take back her freedom and her own power. In
the latter part of the year, as the Queen bowed to the inevitable, Diana’s P
Moon crossed her IC, signaling her move into her own home. P Mars was finally
ending a long square to Diana’s birthplace and London Ascendants, marking the
truce in her long struggle with Charles’s rejection and her own emotional
vulnerability. In the house of marriage, P Mercury opposed P Saturn in the
first house, and P Venus was quincunx natal Saturn, both appropriate aspects
for a separation from a partner. P MC began the square to Uranus exactly on
time, in the late spring of 1992. The clock in the sky was working.

There were also relevant asteroids.
P Union was on Diana’s Ascendant opposite the Descendant as she dissolved the
union. P Charlois (Charles) was on the MC as she took her power back from him,
changed her status, and moved from his home. P Gaea (earth) was on the IC
opposite Charlois as the whole earth watched the man once voted the world’s
“most eligible bachelor” shift to a state that was neither married nor free. P
Elizabeth was trioctile Diana’s Moon as she changed her relationship to her
mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth. P Diana, her own name, was sextile her East Point in London and square her P East Point (an auxiliary Ascendant) as she won
increased freedom to be herself. It was also trioctile Mercury in the seventh
house, another pointer to her friction with her mate. P MC was square Mary,
the name of the Queen Mother who was one of Diana’s harshest critics. Charles
was the first grandchild of the Queen Mother, and many grandmothers will fight
for their first grandchild. P MC was also quincunx P Phillipina (named for King
Phillip) as Diana separated from her father-in-law. The male voice on the tape
was identified as James. The asteroid James was retrograding over Diana’s
Antivertex—another Ascendant. P Karma opposed Diana’s Mars. Her prominence
was also clearly indicated. P Sun was conjunct P Photographica as every
newspaper in the world vied for her picture. P Helio was on P Mercury and
opposite P Saturn while P Aten was coming to natal Mercury—two sun gods as keys
to a life in the limelight. Does anyone think that these tiny blobs of rock and
metal are making things happen to people? We are born where we fit and
character creates destiny.

Remember, all aspects mentioned
for the asteroids (other than the original four) are exact within one degree.

In 1993, Diana’s P MC will begin
an opposition to natal Venus and P Vesta. This probably marks her increasing
separation from her sons as they are busy with school, but it could also
indicate stress with other love relationships. P Vesta and P MC are also
continuing squares to Uranus and moving into squares to the lunar nodes. The
fixed cross shows the potential for a continuing power struggle, but Diana has
found her strength now and I think she will handle it. I hope that both she
and Charles can find some measure of happiness apart since they did not find it
together.